Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 22
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
Iran has commenced a new gas compressor station to release blocked gas in South Pars gas field.
The new station with 5 turbo compressor including a spare one is capable to pump 95 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of natural gas from South Pars in Persian Gulf towards the country's northern regions. For now the station is working with 3 compressor and the forth and spare ones would become operational during next month, Mehr News Agency reported on December 21.
Currently Kheyrkou compressor station pumps gas into 8th cross-country pipeline, with 1,250 km, stretched from South Pars in Assalouyeh region to Qom city.
Iran witnessed gas shortage last week despite the fact that the country's natural gas output has increased by 200 million cubic meters since 2013.
Dozen of cities in west and north-western regions faced gas outage, while according to Iranian media outlets, supplying gas to several industrial units, including cement firms and CNG plants stopped, due to increasing housing gas consumption by more than 4 times to 500 mcm/d during last weeks.
Mehr news agency reported last week that the ongoing problem however is not due to output shortage but because of delay in inaugurating a projected compressor stations.
"It was already planed that the country's gas transmission capacity will increase by 80 million cubic meters per day this year through installing five compressor stations en route the transmission pipeline. These gas compressor stations haven't become fully operational and as a result the country now is forced to send the surplus gas produced in southern regions in particular in South Pars Gas field for flaring, according to the Mehr report.